Located at the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge, the Essex Crossing Development is the largest single development in New York City’s Lower East Side – hosting a 1.9 million square-foot master plan.

Rising above a 6-story podium, which will soon host a public market, the 20-story residential tower at “The Essex” features Island’s pre-fabricated mega-panel enclosure system. Island and Handel Architects worked collaboratively through a Design-Assist partnership to design and deliver the project with a single-sourced building envelope, totaling over 130,000 square-feet in facade scope.

By leveraging Island’s panelized outboard-insulated rainscreen, the project’s entire facade was able to be shop-fabricated, before delivery and installation on-site. Unitized mega-panels at the podium of “The Essex” feature metallic-bronze custom aluminum cladding, formed into chevron patterns, and reaching spans of 13’ in height. The residential tower pairs this custom-fabricated rainscreen with Island’s IEW-3500 casement window system to deliver a complete, high-performing, pre-glazed facade assembly. At the top-of-house “Crown” scope, Island’s steel-framed rainscreen panels are infilled with laminated glass railing, creating terraces that offer incredible 360-degree views of the surrounding cityscape.

Image courtesy of Field Condition

Island’s New York City office managed the design, engineering, and complete off-site fabrication of the facade system. After delivery to site, the mega-panel scope was installed on second-shift, which enabled T.G. Nickel to erect the concrete superstructure on an uninterpreted critical-path schedule.

Construction at the Essex Crossing development is scheduled to be completed in the coming months, ahead of anticipated occupancy in 2019.